HOA Fine, Lien and Foreclosure Timeline by State

Last verified: October 9, 2026 · See updates

Pick your state, say whether you are a condominium or a homeowners association, and enter the date the assessment went unpaid. The tool returns the dates your state's statute attaches to each step: when the board may fine, when the lien has to be recorded, the deadline that preserves your priority over the first mortgage, and the date your claim dies.

The two numbers that decide what collection is worth

Boards usually ask what the law lets them do. The more useful question is what the law leaves them with at the end, and two figures settle most of it.

• Months of priority over the first mortgage. If the unit is sold under the lender's mortgage and your lien sits behind it, you collect what is left after the lender is paid, which is often nothing. A six month priority means a fixed slice of regular assessments is paid ahead of the lender. Ten of the 29 states here give that slice. Sixteen give none. Tennessee gives six months but caps it at one percent of the first mortgage's maximum principal indebtedness, so on a $300,000 loan that is $3,000 even if six months of dues come to more.
• The date the claim dies. Every state with a statutory lien puts a limit on it, and in several the lien is extinguished rather than merely barred. Three years in Alaska, Alabama, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Vermont and West Virginia. Five in Kentucky for condominiums. Six in Maine, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Montana and South Dakota. A file that sits for four years in a three year state is not a slow file, it is a closed one.

What the statute requires before a fine

Fifteen of the 29 states require notice and an opportunity to be heard. That is the floor, not the whole of it:

• Rhode Island is the only state here that caps the dollar amount. $100 a day for continuing conduct in a residential condominium, $500 a day for commercial, $500 or $1,000 for any other fine. A declaration, bylaw or rule that sets its own maximum is invalid.
• Idaho makes the fine conditional on the covenants and on a cure window. The authority to fine must be clearly set out in the covenants, and the board must vote by majority. Written notice must be served by personal service or certified mail at least 30 days before that meeting. If the owner starts resolving the violation before the meeting and keeps at it in good faith, no fine may be imposed at all.
• New Mexico requires 14 days written notice of a hearing and a majority vote of the board or its committee. No notice or hearing is needed where the violation poses an imminent threat to public health or safety.
• Several states protect the owner's access and vote. Delaware says the vote and the services needed for habitability may never be suspended. Vermont, Kansas and Alabama all bar denying an owner access to the unit or lot, and Kansas also bars suspending the right to vote except on assessment and fee issues.
• Ten states give no statutory fine power. Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wyoming. The power, the process and any cap come from your declaration and bylaws, and in Kansas, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota the statute adds nothing at all.

Where these numbers come from

Every answer restates what our 49-state comparison table already publishes for that state in its fines and liens column. The citation, the source link and the verification date are the same, and the tool prints that date with every result. Nothing was added from memory.

Three states were re-read at primary source on October 9, 2026 while this tool was built, and the lines that changed say so: Wisconsin, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Two facts on this page are new, because the comparison cells did not carry them. A Wisconsin condominium foreclosure action must be brought within three years of recording the statement of lien. A New Hampshire 70 day notice must state that the account is at least 60 days delinquent.

The structured version is free to download and reuse under CC BY 4.0: fine-and-lien-rules.json (29 states, 49 statutory clocks).

Three limits, stated plainly:

• Twenty states are not covered. Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Washington have no verified fine and lien entry in our table, so the tool returns no figures for them. Georgia and Utah appear with one point each and nothing else.
• Eight states answer differently for condominiums and for homeowners associations, and the gap is sometimes the whole answer. Alabama gives a condominium six months of priority and a homeowners association none. Iowa, Montana, North Dakota and Indiana give a condominium a statutory lien and a homeowners association none at all.
• The tool does the date arithmetic and not the legal reading. It counts calendar days, months and years from the date you enter. It does not decide which end of a count a statute excludes, whether your association falls inside the act it quotes, or what your declaration adds.

Questions boards ask about fines, liens and foreclosure

Does our lien beat the first mortgage?

Ten of the 29 states in this tool give the association priority over a first mortgage for six months of common expense assessments. They are Alaska, Alabama for condominiums only, Delaware, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont and West Virginia. In 16 states the first mortgage outranks the association in full, so the lien is worth what the sale leaves after the lender is paid. Louisiana uses no months rule at all; there the filing date decides priority. Tennessee's six months is capped at one percent of the maximum principal indebtedness of the first mortgage or deed of trust.

Can the board fine an owner without a hearing?

In 15 of the 29 states the statute requires notice and an opportunity to be heard before a fine. Three states go further. Rhode Island caps the amount: $100 a day for continuing conduct in a residential condominium, $500 a day for commercial, and $500 or $1,000 for any other fine. A declaration or rule that sets its own maximum is invalid. New Mexico requires 14 days written notice of a hearing and a majority board vote. Idaho requires 30 days written notice before the meeting at which the fine is voted on. It bars the fine entirely if the owner starts resolving the violation before that meeting and keeps at it in good faith.

Why does my state show no statutory fine power?

Because 10 of the 29 states give an association none: Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wyoming. The power then comes from your recorded declaration or bylaws, if it is there at all. Kansas, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota set no notice requirement, no hearing requirement and no cap, so the process you owe the owner is the process your own documents describe. Read them before you send a fine letter.

Which deadline most often costs a board its priority?

New Hampshire's. The six month priority over an institutional first mortgage applies only if the association sends written notice within 70 days of the delinquency to both the owner and the lender. That notice must state the account is at least 60 days delinquent. The association must also give the lender 30 days notice before filing the memorandum of lien, and the memorandum itself must be recorded within six months of the due date. Tennessee has the same shape with different numbers: notice to the lender within 30 days of the date six months of assessments became delinquent. Rhode Island's 60 day notice is milder, and missing it costs the association its costs and attorney fees but not the six months.

Why are California, Florida and Texas missing?

Because our 49-state comparison table has not verified the fine and lien column for them to citation depth, and we do not restate a statute we have not read at source. Twenty states are in that position: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Washington. Their rows in the comparison table carry the other seven columns, and the tool links you there instead of guessing.

Does recording the lien start a clock of its own?

In several states, yes, and boards lose claims to it. A Wisconsin condominium foreclosure action must be brought within three years of recording the statement of lien, and the statement itself must be filed within two years of the due date. An Idaho condominium notice of assessment expires one year from recordation unless it is satisfied or enforcement has begun, extendable once by up to a further year by recorded written extension. A New York condominium common charge lien lasts six years from filing. Put the recording date in your records, not only the delinquency date.

Next step

Work the account, not the statute. Our delinquent dues collection workflow sets out the sequence a board follows from the first missed payment, and the violation process and letter template covers the notice and hearing the fine states require. Track the money in the free dues spreadsheet, which has a delinquency column, and put the deadlines this tool gives you in the annual operations calendar so the next treasurer inherits the dates. Read your own state's full entry in the 49-state comparison table, then check it against your declaration and bylaws.

One decision this tool cannot make for you: whether to foreclose at all. In a state with no priority over the first mortgage, a foreclosure can cost the association more than the arrears and still leave the lender first in line. That is the point at which a board should pay for an hour of a community association attorney's time.

Related: All free tools and calculators · Meeting notice deadline calculator · State requirements · Operations · The complete guide to running a self-managed HOA